Free Republic

Less than a year after being elected to lead the oldest state agency in Texas, Land Commissioner George P. Bush has dramatically remade the General Land Office by ousting most of its longtime leaders and replacing many with people with ties to his campaign and family. Eleven of the top 18 officials on the agency’s organizational chart a year ago have been fired or forced out or have quit, and more could leave soon in an overhaul that Bush has described as a “reboot.” In their place, Bush, a former Fort Worth resident, has given top jobs to two of...

Less than a year after being elected to lead the oldest state agency in Texas, Land Commissioner George P. Bush has dramatically remade the General Land Office by ousting most of its longtime leaders and replacing many with people with ties to his campaign and family. Eleven of the top 18 officials on the agency’s organizational chart a year ago have been fired or forced out or have quit, and more could leave soon in an overhaul that Bush has described as a “reboot.” In their place, Bush, a former Fort Worth resident, has given top jobs to two of...

On the debate stage, Jeb Bush has committed the sin of over-explanation, answering a pithy 1994 attack on his business career with so many details about leases and debts that a baffled crowd erupted into boos. He has delivered high-minded put-downs, promising in a 1998 face-off to establish a charter school “for people that distort the facts” and mischievously guaranteeing admission to his opponent. And he has mangled seemingly simple sentences, vowing in a 2002 confrontation that “we can make Florida a bright — have a brighter future for — for all Floridians.” In a Republican presidential debate season dominated...

I am Dorkus, King of All Dorkhood.

Interviewing Donald Trump, GOP front-runner, requires two things of a reporter: a tape recorder to catch each and every one of Trump’s rapid-fire responses, and a willingness to chat. Unlike most contenders, Trump doesn’t really sit for an interview, calmly answering question after question. Instead, he plunges into a roiling, tangential, and humor-spiked conversation from the moment his assistant, Rhona Graff, connects you with his line at Trump Tower. Earlier this week, Trump had a 35-minute call with The Washington Post. Several of his observations and answers made it into Thursday's story on the long-simmering melodrama between him and the...

Jeb Bush has a fantastically awful idea when it comes to college education. He thinks community college students should get “free” tuition for two years. If that’s sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the exact same thing President Barack Obama proposed in January. Which shows how completely hypocritical Bush is because he came out against Obama’s plan in January. Oh, but Bush’s plan gets even more #headdesk inducing. He wants universities to PAY BACK students who don’t graduate in four years. If kids can’t graduate with a four-year degree in four years, there ought to be some payback to their families...

Monday in Texas at the U.S.–Mexico border, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush criticized front-runner Donald Trump’s “unrealistic” immigration plan. Bush said, “The proposal made by another candidate of building a fence based on the common sense practices that are being applied here doesn’t work. You have to have a deeper strategy than just building a fence.”

Presidential candidate Donald Trump calls Jeb Bush a nice person, but the business mogul has little nice to say about the former Florida governor. "Jeb Bush -- he has no clue" about immigration issues, Trump told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week." "He's never going to be able to do anything. You just looked at what's happened with him over the years ... The last thing we need is another Bush." Trump slammed Bush as "a very low-energy person." And Trump dismissed a New York magazine article that says Trump has said: "If I'm going down, then Bush is going...

Casting himself as a tax-cutting, passionate government reformer, Jeb Bush drew merely polite applause Friday from thousands of the nation's most-active tea party conservatives gathered at the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers' summit. Only when the Republican presidential candidate wrapped up his 20-minute speech by calling for a military buildup did the more than 3,000 conservatives from around the nation join in a sustained cheer for Bush, a familiar face in American politics but a newcomer in front of the tea party crowd.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had 30,000 people attend his rally in Mobile, Alabama, on Friday, police said, narrowly edging out Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders for the largest crowd of the 2016 campaign season so far. The much hyped rally was held at Mobile’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium, which hosts the Senior Bowl and the GoDaddy.com Bowl college football games. Trump said his campaign had to switch the location of the event twice after demand for tickets exceeded capacity. Until Trump's event Friday night, the largest crowd at candidate's rally this election cycle was at an event held by Sanders earlier this...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is bringing out the big guns for his next donor summit, turning to his father and brother to headline the event in Texas this fall, according to a copy of the invitation. Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush will be the big draw at the third major-donor conference Jeb Bush has organized to raise money for his 2016 White House bid. The Houston gathering, dubbed the “Jeb Celebration,” illustrates the pros and cons of Jeb Bush’s famous bloodline because it is sure to draw legions of donors loyal to his dad and...

Donald Trump said Tuesday that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush owes women an apology for his recent remarks about funding for women’s health and predicted they will be his “47 percent” moment, alluding to comments made by 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. “I think Jeb Bush owes women an apology, because he made a terrible statement about women’s health issues, and it was a foolish statement and perhaps a stupid statement,” Mr. Trump, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said on CNN’s “New Day.” “It’s a statement that should never have come up; it should never have been made, and...

Donald Trump continued to defy the laws of political gravity on Monday as a Reuters/Ipsos poll found the real estate mogul holding onto a wide lead among Republicans in the U.S. presidential race despite an acerbic debate and a feud with a female television anchor that have bolstered charges of sexism. Trump led the party's 17-strong 2016 presidential field with the backing of 24 percent of Republican voters, unchanged from before Thursday's televised debate. His closest rival, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, trails at 12 percent, down from 17 percent before the debate.

Wonkish and mealy-mouthed, Jeb needs to start riling up his supporters—before Donald Trump wins them all over. To hear Jeb Bush tell it, he’s right where he wants to be, the “joyful tortoise” in the race who doesn’t want to say “outrageous things that turns people off to the conservative message.” At the Koch Brothers’ GOP donor convocation in Dana Point, Calif., over the weekend, Bush waxed confident about the campaign strategy he’s following, including the $120 million war chest he’s spent six months amassing. “I mean, this is a long haul,” Bush said. But many GOP voters don’t seem...

The Jeb Bush campaign announced today that the candidate's son, George P. Bush, will file his father's S.C. presidential paperwork. "George P. Bush, Governor Jeb Bush’s son, will visit South Carolina TODAY on behalf of his Dad’s campaign for President of the United States. George P. will attend a Young Professionals reception in Columbia this morning. He will then visit the South Carolina Republican Party’s headquarters to file Governor Bush’s South Carolina primary paperwork, accompanied by members of the Jeb! 2016 South Carolina campaign leadership team.

THE time-honored way to speak of young people is with horror. They’re wild, reckless, irresponsible, narcissistic, immoral and hopeless — and always have been. Now along comes this generation of millennials, and we have a problem. They are raised on “service projects,” apply to Teach for America in torrents and donate to charity at a higher rate (87 percent) than their elders. Basically, they’ve stabbed us older generations in the back with their idealism and altruism, robbing us of the opportunity to feel superior. One of the exemplars of this trend, also catering to it, is Barbara Bush, 33. Yes,...

Among Hamptonites hosting Jeb Bush fund-raisers this weekend will be Emil W. Henry Jr. — a former assistant US Treasury secretary — and Bruce Mosler, chairman of global brokerage for real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield, sources tell Page Six. Bush is scheduled to hit the two events on Saturday after a breakfast hosted by Ken Lipper and Martin Shafiroff.

Donald Trump has surged to the lead in the New Hampshire GOP presidential primary and virtually erased Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s advantage in the Iowa caucuses, according to new NBC News/Marist polls released Sunday. In Iowa, Walker still tops the field with 19 percent, the poll shows — only two points ahead of Trump, who garners 17 percent. Interviews for the poll began on July 14 — the day after the Walker campaign’s launch event in Wisconsin. The only other candidate in double digits is former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, at 12 percent. Those lagging behind include a number of...

As governor, Jeb stood by embattled appointees — similar to the politicians he criticizes. In his highly touted speech on government reform this week, Jeb Bush accused President Barack Obama of waiting too long to remove tainted appointees, saying he would take on “Mount Washington” in the same way he made “Mount Tallahassee” more accountable when he was governor of Florida. “Don’t get me wrong: During my time in Florida, government wasn’t perfect,” Bush said on Monday. “But part of being a strong leader is accepting responsibility when things go wrong. … And when senior people in my administration violated...

Presidential candidate Jeb Bush is launching a young donor program aimed at padding his already flush campaign account and grooming the next generation of big Republican contributors. The program, called Mission Next, will be spearheaded by his sons, 39-year-old George P. Bush, who last year was elected to statewide office in Texas, and 31-year-old Jeb Bush Jr., who recently took over the consulting business he and his father led in Miami. Both sons have already headlined several fundraisers for their father. -snip- The young donors program will also be named after space missions, according to donors familiar with the plans....